Female farmers and irrigation

Being a woman in rural Africa is no easy task as I have highlighted in my past blogs, however, in this blog I will be looking at the female farmers of rural Africa and the struggles they face because of their sex. Not having the same rights or opportunities as their male counterparts is inevitably not only holding the women back but the development of the areas and economies. Women have limited access to land, technologies and agricultural extension thus disabling them from producing the same yield and results as men do, yet women dominate the agricultural sector as 80% of women are in the agricultural sector. On top of their household duties women are expected to work in the fields, often with their young children either by their side or on their backs. In this blog I will be focusing on the irrigation schemes in Africa and the inequality female farmers’ face in regards to agricultural irrigation.

 In Tunisia we have seen access to irrigated land under localized land reform, where new rights were put into place to help people with low incomes. 50 hectares were expropriated from private owners against compensation and was distributed to small tenants and landless workers who had experience with irrigated farming. These units were distributed in units of 5-10 hectares. Although this scheme is a step in the right direction for inequalities within social classes, gender inequalities still remain in some schemes. For example, the Wolof and Soninke farm distribution in the Delta has proved to still show the gender discriminations that remain. Although women obtained irrigable plots they were only half the size of men’s thus limiting the amount of produce they can produce and keeping their incomes considerable lower that men’s’. However, this is not the case in all of Africa as the irrigable land distribution in Nyandusi, Kenya prioritizes women and gives them priority allocation of land. The organisation in charge of this scheme has worked alongside women’s groups as well as former male land right holders to achieve this.

In general men have much better access to groundwater irrigation than women, men are the head of the household and make the big decisions, meaning women receive whatever they get, which is often a lot less than men. Inheritance is another thing that women often do not receive, as the land and money of the family will get passed to the son of the family, leaving the women to get what they can on their own. The women who don’t gain access to ground water irrigation schemes or any other technologies are forced to use hand pumps, which the women must then carry the water to the farm to water the land. This is a heavy stress on the body that is not necessary if only the women had access to better technologies.

The technologies are available in Africa to help its development of the rural areas. If investment and education was spread even on a local community scale women will be able to develop there farming and income. If they have an increased access to land and water, mainly groundwater irrigation, they can help the local community grow and have a knock on effect to surrounding areas. 

References:

Quisumbing, A. R., & Pandolfelli, L. (2009). Promising approaches to address the needs of poor female farmers: Resources, constraints, and interventions. St. Louis: Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.

Allen, A., & A. A. Frediani. (2013). Farmers, not gardeners The making of environmentally just spaces in Accra. City. 17 (3), p365-381.

van Koppen, B. . (1998). Water rights, gender, and poverty alleviation. Inclusion and exclusion of women and men smallholders in public irrigation infrastructure development. Agriculture and Human Values. 15 (4), p361–374.

Diemer, G. (1990). Irrigatie in Afrika. Boeren en ingenieurs, techniek en cultuur. PhD Thesis. Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers.

Povel S. A. M. T. (1990). “Participatory development of a Women’s Irrigation Scheme case: The Nyandusi Women Horticultural Scheme Nyanza Province, Kenya,” Contribution to the International Workshop “Design for Sustainable Farmer Managed Irrigation Schemes in Sub-Saharan Africa” Department of Irrigation and Soil and Water Conservation Wageningen Agricultural University.